4.2: Environmental Policy

Introduction

It is not uncommon to think of the sustainability paradigm as being a recent interpretation of environmental policy, one that was given credence by the United Nations report "Our Common Future" (the Brundtland Report) when it was first presented in 1987. However, it would be a mistake to conclude that sustainability as a mental construct and policy framework for envisioning the relationship of humans and nature came into being suddenly and at a single moment in time. Most environmental historians who have studied U.S. policy have discerned at least three distinct periods during which new concepts and ideas, scientific understandings, technological advances, political institutions, and laws and regulations came or were brought into being in order to understand and manage human impacts on the environment. 

1. The American conservation movement: This 19th century movement had the main objective for conservation of American land and resources, it grew from opposite philosophies. On one side you had people like Gifford Pinchot (first head of the US National Forest Service) that were very pragmatic about their desire for conservation. For example, these people observed that policies for harvesting some resource (like lumber) were not sustainable, so they began conservation/sustainability research and new policies so the resource would not run out in the foreseeable future. On the other side were people like John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt that saw land/habitats/wildlife as intrinsic entities, meaning that had value in their own right (meaning nothing to do with money).
2. The rise of environmental risk management as a basis for policy: The beginnings of environmental risk management can be traced to the fields of public health, industrial hygiene, and sanitary engineering, which came into prominence in the latter decades of the 19^th century and beginning of the 20^th. The spread of disease was a particularly troublesome problem as the country continued to urbanize. In addition, environmental scientists of the day were alarmed by the extent and degree of damage that they were documenting. The publication of Silent Spring in 1962 by Rachel Carson (1907-1964), about the impact of the widespread and indiscriminate use of pesticides, was a watershed moment, bringing environmental concerns before a large portion of the American, and global, public. Carson, collected scientifically documented evidence on the effects of pesticides, particularly DDT, heptachlor, and dieldrin, on humans and mammals, and the systemic disruption they caused to ecosystems. Silent Spring is credited with bringing about a ban on the use of DDT in the United States, and setting in motion a chain of events that would ultimately result in the transformation of environmental public policy from one based on the problems and attitudes that brought about nineteenth century conservation, to one based on the management of risks from chemical toxins. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970, just eight years after the publication of Silent Spring. The same year Earth Day was created.
3. The integration of social and economic factors to create what we now refer to as the sustainability paradigm: Eventually, we (humanity) realized that in order to solve environmental issues (like ones identified by Rachel Carson), that the "human factors" (both social and economical) had to be accounted for. This is what defines the sustainability paradigm: environmental, social, and economic disciplines. Only Band-Aid solutions can be applied if we only take a one-minded approach.

 

History of Environmental Policy

Environmental policies are typically driven by problems of the day, real and perceived, that require systemic solutions. For example:

• Early conservationists were alarmed at the inefficiencies of human resource management and the encroachment of humans on unspoiled lands... Leading to conservation legislation.
• During the 20^th century many groups (scientists, economists, politicians, and ordinary citizens) became alarmed and fearful of the consequences of toxic pollutant loads to the environment that included localized effects on human health and well-being... Leading to clean air and water legislation.
• As we proceed into the 21^st century, an array of complex problems that have the potential to alter substantially the structure and well-being of large segments of human societies, calls for a renewal and reassessment of our approach to environmental policy.

This has, thus far, proven to be a difficult transition. Many of these complex problems have multiple causes and impacts, affect some groups of people more than others, are economically demanding, and are often not as visibly apparent to casual observers as previous impacts, nor are the benefits perceived to be commensurate with costs. Devising a regulatory strategy for such problems requires an adaptive and flexible approach that current laws do not foster.

Table \(\PageIndex{a}\): Table illustrating evolution of environmental policy. Table by Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation in Openstax (CC-BY).

	1850-1920	1960-1990	1990-Present
Focus	Conservation/sanitation	Media/site/problem specific	Complex regional/ global problems
Outcome	Land preservation/efficiency/control of disease	Manage anthropocentric and ecological risk	Global sustainable development
Principal Activity	Resource management reform/simple contaminant controls	Compliance/remediation/technological emphasis on problem solving	Integration of social, economic, and technological information for holistic problem solving
Economic Focus	Profit maximization/public health	Cost minimization	Strategic investments/long-term societal well-being
Regulatory Activity	Low	Heavy	Adaptive and flexible
Conceptual Model	Expansion vs preservation	Command and control	Systems/life cycle approach
Disciplinary Approach	Disciplinary and insular	Multidisciplinary	Interdisciplinary/integrative

 

Table \(\PageIndex{b}\): Table illustrating major environmental legislation, society, and organization conceptions. Table by Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC).

Year	Policy/Society/Organization Conception
1899	Refuse Act
1905	National Forest Service
1916	National Park Service
1918	Migratory Bird Treaty Act
1930's	State Parks
1948	Federal Water Pollution Control Act
1950	The Nature Conservancy
1955	Air Pollution Control Act
1961	World Wildlife Federation
1963	Clean Air Act (1970, 1977, 1990 updates)
1965	Solid Waste Disposal Act (1976 update)
1965	Water Quality Act (1987 update)
1967	Air Quality Act
1969	National Environmental Policy Act
1970	Occupational Safety and Health Act
1970	Environmental Protection Agency
1971	Occupational Safety and Health Administration
1972	Consumer Product Safety Act
1972	Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
1972	Clean Water Act (1977 update)
1972	Noise Control Act
1973	Endangered Species Act
1974	Safe Drinking Water Act (1986, 1996 updates)
1975	Hazardous Materials Transportation Act
1976	Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
1976	Toxic Substances Control Act
1980	CERCLA (Superfund)
1984	Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments
1986	Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
1986	Emergency Wetlands Resources Act
1990	Oil Pollution Act
1993	North American Free Trade Agreement
2003	Healthy Forest Initiative

 

Attribution

Modified by Rachel Schleiger from Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation by Openstax (CC-BY).